The other day I listened to the interview with Victoria Boutenko on the first night of the Raw Mom Summitt and she spoke about her whole family sleeping on either the floor or another hard surface. She explained for the first couple of nights or so your body would be detoxifying and you would probably feel discomfort, but after about seven nights, you would feel aches and pains sleeping on your soft bed! I talked to my partner, Laye about it and he said that back in Senegal growing up they used to sleep on the ground as well and often children would just fall asleep wherever they were on any surface. It reminds me of watching my own son just fall asleep so deeply after playing with trains for hours on the living room floor and simply letting a train drop from his hand and rolling over on his side.In one of Victoria's first books "12 Steps to Raw" she writes "our bodies need to stretch out at night. All the bones and joints can only stretch out when we lie on a hard surface...the spine is improperly positioned while driving, in front of the computer, watching tv, such that some joints don’t get adequate spinal fluid and blood enriching oxygen."
This great article on zafu.net (the website of a company that sells yoga props and meditation pillows) gives a more in depth exploration of "Sleep Ergonomics" and the habit of traditional peoples to sleep on hard surfaces. You can find it here
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When I was traveling in China and living in Japan, I slept on hard surfaces most of the time. After roughly two years of that I returned to the States and found it extremely uncomfortable to sleep in a bed. Instead, I spread a cheap sleeping bag out on the floor, and slept there instead.
ReplyDeleteI'm used to sleeping in a bed once again, now, but overall I'd have to say I prefer the hard surface. I think my bones and back especially benefitted from being on a rigid surface. Though, one of the aspects to get used to when sleeping on a floor (for example) is also sleeping on one's back the whole night. Sleeping on one's side during the night will usually wake you up since too many bony points hit the ground.
Thanks for sharing that. Thats interesting since Victoria Boutenko said that she does sleep on her side - maybe she's so used to it by now. I'm gearing up to throwing out my futon and just sleeping on the 2 inch wool topper on top of the platform frame. I'll see how it goes and post later
ReplyDeleteI have to admit, that I slept a lot better back in the day when I couldn't afford a "nice" mattress. I used to sleep on a four inch cotton futon mattress that was HARD, and slept like a baby. A couple of years ago, my partner chose a mattress that was super thick and also has a little three inch super soft top thingy on it, and I have never slept properly since. I am going to give the floor a shot for seven days and see what happens!
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